modern constitutional principles of equality, citizenship, and democratic representation, particularly when applied indefinitely to a permanent population of United States citizens.
The doctrine of territorial governance applied to Puerto Rico originated during a period in American history when constitutional interpretation was influenced by racialized and cultural assumptions regarding the capacity of non-continental populations for self-government
These assumptions are evident in the Supreme Court’s Insular Cases, which introduced the concept of “unincorporated territories” and permitted selective application of constitutional rights. While such reasoning may have reflected the norms of the era, it stands in tension with